Get an iPhone 3G for free — in Japan

Is Japanese wireless carrier SoftBank making way for a new version of the iPhone, or are sales just sluggish? Who can say, but from Friday through the end of May, you can sign up for an 8GB iPhone 3G in Japan for a grand total of zero.AppleInsider and CrunchGear report that starting Friday, SoftBank's new "iPhone for Everybody" campaign (translated page is here) will offer the 8GB iPhone for free, so long as you sign up for a new two-year contract. The promotion apparently runs through May 31.
Meanwhile, SoftBank will sell the 16GB iPhone for a steeply discounted price—just 11,520 yen (about US$119), and you can even pay for the handset in monthly installments, which come out to less than $5 a month during the two-year service agreement. 

SoftBank subscribers will still have to pay monthly voice and data charges, of course, although as AppleInsider notes, the carrier is chopping its standard data plan (about US$62 a month) by more than 25 percent.

Here in the U.S., of course, the iPhone 3G is still $199 for the 8GB and $299 for the 16GB model—although if you're a Reward Zone member at Best Buy, you can snap up an 8GB iPhone 3G for $99 (through February 28 only).

So, what's the deal? Hard to say; as CrunchGear points out, Apple has yet to release iPhone sales figures for Japan, while Ars Technica speculates that SoftBank might be struggling to fulfill its promised sales goals for Apple given the worldwide economic crisis.
http://tech.yahoo.com

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About Barack H. Obama

Barack H. Obama

His story is the American story — values from the heartland, a middle-class upbringing in a strong family, hard work and education as the means of getting ahead, and the conviction that a life so blessed should be lived in service to others.

With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. He was raised with help from his grandfather, who served in Patton's army, and his grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management at a bank.

He went on to attend law school, where he became the first African—American president of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he returned to Chicago to help lead a voter registration drive, teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and remain active in his community.

After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, President Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked with a group of churches to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants.

President Obama's years of public service are based around his unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose. In the Illinois State Senate, he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expanded health care for children and their parents. As a United States Senator, he reached across the aisle to pass groundbreaking lobbying reform, lock up the world's most dangerous weapons, and bring transparency to government by putting federal spending online.

He was elected the 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008, and sworn in on January 20, 2009. He and his wife, Michelle, are the proud parents of two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.

Barack H. Obama is the 44th President of the United States.
http://www.whitehouse.gov
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